Q37 
L A It LA It 
To lapjt in fulnefs 
Ts forer than to lie tor need ; and fallhood 
Is worfe in kings than beggars. SkaKefpeare. 
To flip, as by inadvertency or raiftake.—Ilomer, in his 
characters of Vulcan and Therfites, has lapfed into the bur- 
lefque character, and departed from that ierious air efl'en- 
tial to an epic poem. Addifon. —To lofe the proper time.— 
As an appeal may be defected by the appellant’s lapfng 
the term of law, fo it may alfo be defected by a lapfe of 
the te;rm of a judge. Ayliffe. 
Myfelf flood out: 
For which if I be lap/ed in this place, 
I fliall pay dear. Shakefpeare's Twelfth Night. 
To fall by the negligence of one proprietor to another.— 
If the archbithop (hall not fill it up within fix months en- 
fuing, it lapfes to the king. Aylijfe. —To fall by death, as 
in the cafe of legacies.—If the legatee dies before the tefta- 
tor, the legacy is a loft, or lapfed, legacy. Blackfone. —To 
fall from perfection, truth, or faith.—A fprout of that 
fig-tree which was to hide the nakednefs of lapfed Adam. 
Decay of Piety. 
Once more I will renew 
His lapfed pow’rs, though forfeit, and inthrall’d 
JBy fin to foul exorbitant defines. Milton. 
LAPSFDED, adj. A fea term ; having one fide heavier 
than the other. 
LAP'SING, f. The aCl of returning to a former ftate ; 
the aft of falling. 
LAPTA'NA, or Laptaw', a town of Pruflia, in the 
province of Sr.inland : ten miles north of Konigfberg. 
LAP'TCHOUT HO'TUN, a town of Afia, in the 
country of Kami: thirty miles weft of Iiami-Hotun. 
Bat. 43. N. Ion. 92. 48. E. 
LAPUS'ZNA, a town of European Turkey, in Mol¬ 
davia, near a river of the fame name : fifty miles ealt- 
fouth-eaft of Jafli. 
LAPUS'ZNA, a river of European Turkey, which runs 
into the Pruth near Huf. 
LAP'WING, f. A clamorous bird with long wings. 
See Tringa. 
And now in fields the lapwing Tereus reigns, 
The warbling nightingale in woods complains. Dryden. 
LAP'WO.RK, f. [lap and work . ] Work in which one 
part is interchangeably lapped or wrapped over the other. 
—A baiket made of porcupine quills; the ground is a 
packthread card woven, into which, by the Indian wo¬ 
men, are wrought, by a kind of lapzoorh, the quills of por¬ 
cupines, not fplit, but of the young ones intire; mixed 
with white and black in even and indented waves.' Grezv's 
Mtifaum. 
LAQUEAR', f in architecture, the inward roof; a 
ceiling channelled and done with fretwork. Phillips. 
LAQUEA'RIUS, /. A kind of athleta among the an¬ 
cients, who in one hand held a laquevs, i. e. a fort of fnare, 
wherewith to embarrafs and entangle his antagonift, and 
in the other a poniard to ftab him. 
LAQUELT', a river of France, which runs into Lys 
two miles below Aire. 
LAQUE'US,/. [Latin.] The navel-ftring. . In furgery, 
a kind of ligature fo contrived, that, when ftretched by 
any weight, or the like, it draws up clofe. Its ufe is to 
extend broken or disjointed bones, to keep them in their 
places while they are fet, and to bind the parts clofe to- 
gether. 
LAQ'UILO, a fmall ifiand in the Mediterranean, near 
the coaft of Murcia, about three miles fouth-eaft of Al- 
magaran. 
LAR ,f [Latin.] A houfehold god : 
In confecrated earth, 
And on the holy hearth, 
The lars and lemures moan with midnight plaint. Milton. 
The Lares were diftinguifiied from the Penates: as the 
V.ol.XII. No. 825. 
former were fuppofed to prefide over houfekeeping, the 
fervants in families, and domeftic affairs ; and the latter 
were the proteftors of the matters of families, their wives 
and children. Accordingly theLares were drelfed in fltort 
fuccinft habits, to (how their readinefs toferve ; and they 
held a fort of cornucopia in their hands, as a fignal of 
hofpitality and good houfekeeping. According to Ovid, 
there were generally two of them, who were lometimes 
reprefented with a dog at their feet. Plutarch diftin- 
guifhes good and evil Lares, as he had before done good 
and evil Genii. There are alfo Pome public, others pri¬ 
vate, Lares. 
Apuleius tells us the domeftic Lares were no more than, 
the fouls of departed perfons, who had lived well, and 
difeharged the duties of their ftation ; whereas thofe who 
had done otherwife were vagabonds, wandering about 
and frightening people, called l.arvie and Lemures. The 
public Lares were alio called Compitales, from compitum, 
a crofs-way; and Viales, from via, a way or public road; 
as being placed at the meetings of roads and in the 
highways, and efteemed the patrons and proteftors of tra¬ 
vellers. The private Lares took care of particular houfes 
and families: thefe they alfo called Prajlites, from praflo ; 
Quod prajlant oculis omnia tula fids. (Ovid. Fait.) They 
gave the name Urbani, i. e. Lares of cities, to thofe who had 
cities under their care; and Hofilii to thofe who were to 
keep their enemies off. There were alfo Lares of the 
country, called Ruralcs-, as appears by feverul antique in- 
feriptions. 
The Lares were alfo genial gods, and u'ere fuppofed to 
take care of children from their birth. It is for this rea- 
fon that, when Macrobius tells us the Egyptians had four 
gods who prefided over the births of children, viz. the 
Genius, Fortune, Love,and Neceftity, called Prajlites, fome 
interpret him as if he had faid the Egyptians had Lares; 
but they have mentioned that there was a great differ¬ 
ence between the Lares of the Romans and the Prxftites 
of the Egyptians. However, the learned Mr. Bryant af¬ 
firms that they were the fame. 
The ancients differ extremely about the origin of the* 
Lares. Varro and Macrobius fay that they were the chil¬ 
dren of Mania; Ovid makes them the ilfue of Mercury, 
and the naiad Lara or Laranda; (fee Lara.) Apuleius 
allures us they were the pofterity of the Lemures; Nigri- 
dius, according to Arnobius, made them fometimes the 
guardians and proteftors of houfes, and fometimes the fame 
with the Curetes of Samothracia, which the Greeks call 
1 dm daclyli. Nor was Varro more conliltent in his opinion 
of thefe gods ; fometimes making them the manes of he¬ 
roes, and fometimes gods of the air. T. Tatius king of 
the Sabines was the firft who built a temple to the Lares. 
The chimney, and fire-place in the houfe were particularly 
confecrated to them. Tertullian tells us the cuftom of 
tvorlhipping the Lares arofe from this, that thty anciently 
interred their dead in their houfes; whence the credulous 
people took cccalion to imagine their fouls continued 
there alfo, and proceeded to pay them divine honours. To 
this may be added, that, the cuftom being afterwards in¬ 
troduced of burying in the highways, they'might henc? 
take occafion to regard them as gods-of the highways.. 
The viftim offered to the Lares in the public facrifices 
was a hog; in private, they offered them wine, incenfe, 
a crown of wool, and a little of what was left at the table. 
They alfo crowned them with flowers, particularly the 
violet, myrtle, and rofemary. Their fymbol was a dog, 
which was ufually reprefented by their fide, on account 
of its fidelity, and the fervice it doei to a man in watching 
his houfe. They were fometimes alfo reprefented as 
clothed in a dog’s lkin. 
The term Lares, according to Mr. Bryant, was formed 
from lartn, an ancient word by which the ark was repre¬ 
fented ; and he lup.pofes that the Lares and Manes were 
the fame domeftic deities under different names; and that 
by thefe terms the Hetrurians and Latins denoted the dii 
arkitae, who were no other than their arkite anceftors, or 
3 P the 
